Sidney Nolan: Such is life

This biography of Sidney Nolan was published in 1987 when Nolan was alive, celebrated, productive and happily married to his third wife Mary Boyd . By the time Nolan was in his seventies he was regarded as Australia's greatest living artist with an international reputation as a significant modern

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artist . The title of the book, "such is Life" were the last words of Ned Kelly the Australian criminal and folk hero before he was hanged . Nolan reinterpreted the Kelly myth in a series of paintings that today is part of the national art collection . Nolan's own journey through life could be summed up in those same words. The biography is not a critical study of the man or his work . It was based heavily on interviews with Sidney and Mary Nolan , it tells the story from Nolan's perspective . He was talented , something of a rebel, and to read between the lines, not an easy son or husband . The book is well illustrated with Nolan's paintings and family photographs . Published by Hutchinson in Britain it is the sort of book that was ephemeral and too hagiographic when published , but in the intervening twenty five years the book has become collectable and copies are difficult to come by. It is an important biography because the direct connection of the author and the artist was so visible in the writing . It is a weakness and a strength of this book.

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